Today, after the my first warm up for any physical activity…I had my another first…I got onto my skates and spent half an hour practicing the walk.

My coach Nitin is really a nice guy. He made me walk on grass with my skates on. When I asked, my father said that is because grass has more friction than the rink floor where I had higher chances of falling down. I liked my coach’s approach.

My father loved the way I listened to every word of my coach – he was reminded of his days with his coaches. And from what I have heard from him…he has had many.

Starting from his Kabaddi coach who helped him become a Junior Nationals player, his Shot put coach who didn’t quite take him the distance, his middle distance coach (my father tried his hand at 1500m races) who helped him run 1500m in 4 minutes & 30 seconds and finally his NCC drill coach.

For the last one year I have been watching in awe, the children skating in our apartment’s skating rink.

“How do they move so fast?” I asked my mother and she gave a half an hour lecture on something called skating.

Since then, I have been telling my mother that I also wanted to skate…but apparently, I was underage till now. My coach had wanted me to start as soon as I was four and half years old. So, there!

Today afternoon we bought skates, helmet, knee-guards, and elbow-gaurds and were at rink at 6 pm sharp.

My coach’s name is Nitin and he does seem like a nice guy. Not the type to have an affair with, but yes…fine.

My father choked when the coach was padding me up for my lessons.
Apparently, my father had to wait for a year to get his first football spikes and while buying he was so excited that he didn’t realize they were one size small. He says he used it for two years…and with every match, playing soccer became difficult.

I don’t buy much of his stories, but he does have the height of Diego Maradona.

Looks like it was a lot of missed opportunities for my father, for he also told me the story about the only skating rink in Madurai – somewhere near an old park called Sundaram Park, in Madurai.

he says many a times he has stood outside the rink, watching the rich kids skate (he says they were rich…but today, are we?). I wouldn’t have believed him if he hadn’t asked my coach if adults can also learn skating.